Chapter 20 – Completing The Team
A/n: I really cannot believe I have gotten this far with a story and it's mostly thanks to all of you who are reviewing, following and adding this story to their favourites. So lots of love to all of you.
paisley15: Loving your song playlist for the last chapter, most of them weirdly fit :D Yes I did, I was like OMG Clint! I think that one line made him rise rapidly up my favourites list. And yes I felt cheated when Steve said right in front of Bruce that Tony had been expecting him to show up and he didn't even act surprised.
XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yep, Iron Man is fast approaching. I might take a day to review the movie before posting the chapter but I might get it up the day after the interlude I'll write between the movies. Fury is going to be furious, okay, sorry, bad pun. Bad Author! Yeah, Steve's comment about her never making the sacrifice play is so coming back to haunt him.
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I was just looking back on your earlier reviews and I think I've thoroughly corrupted you with my latest chapters ever since I told you Toni is a mix of Tony and me /lol/. Of course he will; he's Bruce!
Angelus Animi: Yeah, prepare for feels. I hope! It'll prove I wrote this well. And yes, Iron Man 1 & 2 will probably be the best parts of this story :)
Booklover2526: He'll be waking up and joining in soon. After all he doesn't know about this bit of the battle :)
Ashtree1165: Yay, I'm glad!
Harm Marie: I'm glad and thank you. It was always my aim to put something more in.
Toni flew down close to the ground and as the leviathan was following her intently it too swooped lower upturning parked cars as if they were nothing. Bruce immediately turned and began to walk towards it. "Dr. Banner," Steve said stepping forward, "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
"That's my secret, Captain," Bruce told him, "I'm always angry." That was the last thing that Bruce said before he turned back the approaching leviathan and became the Hulk intentionally for the first time.
"It actually felt good to transform then," Bruce acknowledged, "for the first time ever. Maybe it's because I wasn't desperately trying to stop it from happening. Or maybe it was because I finally had a little faith in what the Other Guy would and wouldn't allow to happen. It was the first time it felt less like a curse."
"I did try and tell you," Toni said with a smile.
The Hulk took a fist to the Leviathan and it ground to a sudden halt. As the back kept its momentum it caused it to fly up to a straight position in the air and was about the curl over and land on the team when Toni intervened. "Hold on!" she shouted and aimed one of her missiles at the flesh of the leviathan beneath its armour. The others instantly dived for cover as after a few seconds the leviathan exploded sending bits scattering down.
"Not the safest way of destroying a giant space whale but it was the only one we had at the time," Clint shrugged.
"The next method I used was worse," Toni said with a hint of disgust in her voice. It hadn't been the most pleasant experience of her life being inside that thing.
The Chitauri who had sprung from the beast remained clinging onto the walls making an odd squawking sound that seemed to derive from them being angry at Bruce and Toni. But the Hulk simply roared back as Toni descended into the circle that had formed with the other Avengers.
Up on his vantage point Loki instructed the Chitauri to, "send the rest," and more leviathans came flying through the portal. "Guys," Natasha said seriously spotting them first.
"It was good luck that we paused there and were all in the same place," Steve commented, "or we might not have been as organised."
"Loki was trying to keep troops in reserve but he'd have been better off sending everything in at once," Toni said, "there were only five of us when the battle kicked off and we wouldn't have been able to deal with all of it at once."
"Call it, Captain," Toni said.
"That kind of surprised me," Clint admitted, "by all accounts of you I thought you'd be vying for the leadership position."
"I'm not one for following yes but that's only because following has nearly gotten me killed on several occasions," Toni replied, "I am perfectly capable of being reasonable in that type of situation. Besides I don't really enjoy leading."
"All right, listen up," Steve instructed, "until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked Toni.
"Right," Toni quipped, "Better clench up, Legolas."
"You're so much easier to come up with nicknames for than the others Katniss," Toni said with a smile. Maybe a while back Clint would have complained about the archery inspired nicknames especially since Katniss was a girl but he understood now that Toni only gave nicknames under special circumstances. When she got really annoyed (see Loki and Steve to a certain extent) and to those she liked which was basically restricted to the Avengers although he and Bruce had the most.
Toni grabbed the back of Clint's shirt and blasted up onto the building that Steve had indicated with him. "Thor," Steve resumed, "you've got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."
"I'm so glad we had the comm units on for this conversation or I would never have heard Captain America swear," Toni laughed.
Thor got Mjolnir up to speed and took off as Steve addressed Natasha, "you and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And Hulk…"
The Hulk turned with a grunt to look at Steve as he gave him a one-word instruction, "smash!" The Hulk's face morphed into a sinister smile and he leapt onto the side of the nearest building slamming into one of the Chitauri before jumping across to the opposite building and spinning across it taking down several others.
"I remember enjoying that but not much else," Bruce said with a laugh, "I think he was scared at one point too. Near the end."
Toni flinched a little when she heard this; she kind of hadn't told Bruce the entirety of the story of how the fight ended. He knew that she had blown up the Chitauri ship with a missile and he knew that the Hulk had saved her from falling but she hadn't told him about her little sojourn into space. And she knew nobody else had either because she hadn't been confronted by Bruce asking her why she hadn't told him. She just wanted to have one person in her life who didn't get worried about just how willing she was to make the sacrifice play. She supposed she was losing that now. Especially since the rest of the team would know about the other times she did the same thing. She still didn't really understand why everyone made such a big deal about it.
Thor's flight took him to the top of the Chrysler building and he raised Mjolnir as it began to crackle with lightning. Storm clouds gathered in the sky turning it grey and the lightning kept building until it began to run through Mjolnir, Thor and the Chrysler building making it become one giant lightning conductor.
"That's impressive," Bruce complimented.
The glass on the building shattered from the sheer amount of electricity running over it as Thor put all his effort into firing the lightning that had gathered upon Mjolnir up towards the portal. The Chitauri who were in the way of the bolt of lightning blew up and the leviathan that had been descending through the portal became trapped as it became smaller and eventually it began to explode.
The scene changed back to the helicarrier where they had gotten the screens up and running after the attack. Fury was using his to watch news reports of what was going on in Manhattan. He was interrupted by Agent Hill running up and informing him, "sir. The Council is on."
"And here the idiots go messing up everything," Natasha spat out. She had never been fond of the Council in the first place and now that her trust in SHIELD as an organisation as a whole was faltering she disliked them even more because they were who ultimately had the final say in what SHIELD did.
Clint was shown standing on the rooftop drawing an arrow as Toni flew past, "Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail," he warned.
"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets," Toni quipped in return with a slight smile. She turned a corner and headed down another street with the Chitauri soldiers still following her.
"Well, they can't bank worth a damn," Clint laughed enjoying their interaction and hitting another Chitauri craft that was speeding past with an arrow without even turning, "so find a tight corner."
Toni whistled appreciatively at the incredible shot which she of course hadn't been able to see at the time. Natasha watching their interactions said jokingly, "I'm starting to think we should keep you two apart, your interactions might be dangerous for others."
"I will roger that," Toni acknowledged as she rounded another corner. Clint fired another arrow without looking which hit its target dead on. Toni turned as many corners as she could as quickly as was possible and managed to take a few of her followers out before zooming under a covered walkway sighing, "oh, boy!"
"Those turns are hard to make and I was doing so many it was becoming overwhelming," Toni said as explanation for what she had said.
The last of her tail was destroyed in the tunnel one even coming flying out of the exit in a ball of flame that collided with the opposite building. "Nice call," she told Clint, "What else you got?"
"Thor is taking on a squadron down on sixth," Clint informed her.
"And he didn't invite me," Toni replied mock offended and took off towards there.
"I didn't realise I needed to invite you to join me in a fight Lady Toni," Thor said bemused.
"Never mind," Toni said deciding not to get into it, "I don't usually wait for an invitation anyway."
One of the leviathans rounded on one of Manhattan's offices which was still full of civilians.
"Useless police," Toni muttered, "we told them to evacuate the civilians."
But the leviathan didn't have time to round on them for the Hulk came crashing through the office stations as they dove out of his path. The Hulk just kept running and smashed through the window at the end managing to latch onto the leviathan's mouth and turn the creature away. The only damage it made to offices then was with its fin which slashed through several windows.
Back on the ground Natasha was grappling with one of the Chitauri on the bonnet of a taxi. She managed to get her legs around its neck and used her Widow's Bites before grabbing its staff which she used to blast it before spinning around to fire on the next enemy only to find Steve dropping down behind her.
"At least I paused before firing I guess," Natasha said with a shrug. If she hadn't suspected it wasn't a Chitauri by the difference in sound from the landing she might have done so. Steve had gotten off lightly.
Natasha sighed and steadied herself on the staff, "Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."
"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve said exasperated.
"Well, maybe it's not about guns," Natasha reasoned.
"It isn't always," Toni agreed.
"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride," Steve reasoned keeping a close eye on the fresh batch of Chitauri that had landed at the other end of the bridge.
"I've got a ride," Natasha said tossing the staff aside and throwing the Chitauri vehicles a significant look before walking over to the opposite side of the bridge from Steve, "I could use a boost, though."
"This sounds like one of my plans," Toni laughed, "I think we've been rubbing off on each other Tasha."
"What was your first clue Annie?!" Natasha joked in return.
Steve backed up and held his shield out in front of him before questioning, "Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah," Natasha said uncertainly, "it's gonna be fun." With that she ran towards Steve and jumped neatly onto the bonnet of a nearby car before giving herself a final boost off of Steve's shield and spinning up to catch onto the back of her target. Steve stared up after her in astonishment.
"It was really impressive," Steve remarked, "especially without powers."
As Natasha flew off into the distance Steve was forced to turn his attention back to the advancing Chitauri on the bridge as they began firing on him. Up in the sky Natasha managed to securely clamber up onto a solid surface before slashing the chain that kept the Chitauri soldier there with her knife. As he fell she clambered forward before leaping onto the back of the other and sticking her knives in as a way of controlling it. "Okay, turn, turn," she muttered to herself as she was having trouble controlling the craft.
"Steering that thing was a pain," Natasha sighed.
"Less! Less!" she shouted as she took a chip off of the side of a stone building. Another craft tried to take her out but Toni quickly flew past and blasted them to stop that happening. Then she flew down to ground level ploughing through Chitauri like they were simply made of air and then landed next to Steve. She quickly took out a couple more of the aliens with him by reflecting her laser beam off of his shield before taking to the sky once more.
"Wow," Clint said disbelievingly, "I guess you really do have to see you two working together to believe it. That was almost seamless."
Toni blasted several of them off the side of the building they were climbing up to get to Clint as he fired an arrow at close range into the one who had made it to the top before ducking another beam of energy. He rose to his feet and took down another alien craft as a leviathan passed by with the Hulk on its back throwing off attacking Chitauri members. Thor quickly joined him swinging Mjolnir into every alien he could reach.
"We actually look like a team," Toni said, "who knew! Even back then it worked."
The Hulk shoved a gigantic shard of metal through the leviathan's armour and Thor lit it up with lightning causing it to crash through another building. After this moment of working together had ended the Hulk took a fist to the side of Thor's head sending him flying off.
"Sorry," Bruce said wincing, "I guess he was still bitter about you beating me up the previous time I changed."
On the roof of Stark Tower Dr. Selvig finally regained consciousness and watched in horror upon seeing the destruction that surrounded him now that he was free of the Tesseract's control.
The army had finally arrived on the scene and were attempting to fire at the alien invaders. This attempt wasn't all that successful but they were doing a better job at directing civilians away.
Back on the bridge Steve struggled to keep the staff of one of the Chitauri from hitting his face and eventually managed to push him aside. "Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison," Clint relayed, "They've cornered a lot of civilians in there."
"I'm on it," Steve responded.
"Always go to Cap with civilian troubles," the group chorused causing Steve to blush. He knew they weren't suggesting it was a bad thing but it was a little embarrassing that he was so predictable.
In the bank the Chitauri soldiers stood on the balcony with their weapons raised pointing at the crowd who were clustered together on the ground floor. The civilians were of course panicking as one of the Chitauri activated a form of bomb. Steve jumped in through the window and hurled his shield at that particular alien before jumping out of the way of the energy blasts from the others. He kicked the table that he had jumped behind into two of the others before running in to kick another and cause him to land in the middle of the crowd, "everyone clear out," he shouted to them as one came up behind him and grabbed him around the neck.
"Pay attention to your surroundings Steve," Natasha sighed exasperatedly. The civilians were important but Steve shouldn't be acting too recklessly whilst trying to rescue them. They weren't in any immediate danger at that stage.
The Chitauri soldier who Steve had hit with his shield recovered so Steve took the opportunity to fling the other one who had a hold on him in front of the blast sent his way. In response the soldier grabbed the bomb and Steve swiftly rolled out of the way and held his shield up in front of his face before he was sent flying backwards by the blast onto the roof of a car.
"Ouch," Toni said sympathetically. She guessed that was where Steve's main injury from that battle came from.
Steve pushed himself up from the car wincing in pain as the army escorted the civilians from the building. One particular civilian – a waitress – paused to look worriedly at Steve who was just standing stock still in the middle of the road before she was escorted away.
"Sorry to interrupt," JARVIS said pausing the movie, "but Agent Coulson has successfully been awakened from his medically induced coma with no complications and he is on the plane here. Recommended treatment is rest and observation so I suggest he might want to join you. Would you like to wait for his arrival?"
The Avengers communicated solely with looks for a minute before Toni spoke up, "yes JARVIS, that would be good," the longer it took them to get to any films that had been set up about her life the better.
A/n: Okay, this one is shorter than the previous ones but the scene in the film is really short. I actually tacked a few hundred words more on by stealing some of the next scene. Next chapter Coulson arrives :D